creating va_list dynamically in GCC - can it be done?

Question

my problem with vsprintf is that I can not obtain input arguments directly, I have to first get inputs one by one and save them in void**, then pass this void** to vsprintf(), it is all fine for windows, but when I come to 64bit linux, gcc cannot compile because it is not allowed to convert from void** to va_list, Is there anyone that can give me some help how I should do this under linux?

Can I create va_list dynamically in GCC?

void getInputArgs(char* str, char* format, ...)
{
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, format);
    vsprintf(str, format, args);
    va_end(args);
}  

void process(void)
{
    char s[256];
    double tempValue;
    char * tempString = NULL;
    void ** args_ptr = NULL;
    ArgFormatType format;   //defined in the lib I used in the code
    int numOfArgs = GetNumInputArgs();  // library func used in my code

    if(numOfArgs>1)
    {
        args_ptr = (void**) malloc(sizeof(char)*(numOfArgs-1));
        for(i=2; i<numOfArgs; i++)
        {
            format = GetArgType();    //library funcs

            switch(format)
            {
                case ArgType_double:
                    CopyInDoubleArg(i, TRUE, &tempValue);   //lib func
                    args_ptr[i-2] = (void*) (int)tempValue;    
                    break;

                case ArgType_char:
                    args_ptr[i-2]=NULL;
                    AllocInCharArg(i, TRUE, &tempString);  //lib func
                    args_ptr[i-2]= tempString;
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    getInputArgs(s, formatString, (va_list) args_ptr);   //Here 
           // is the location where gcc cannot compile, 
           // Can I and how if I can create a va_list myself?
}

Answer 1

There is a way you can do this, but it is specific to gcc on Linux. It does work on Linux (tested) for both 32 and 64 bit builds.

DISCLAIMER: I am not endorsing using this code. It is not portable, it is hackish, and is quite frankly a precariously balanced elephant on a proverbial tightrope. I am merely demonstrating that it is possible to dynamically create a va_list using gcc, which is what the original question was asking.

With that said, the following article details how va_list works with the amd64 ABI: Amd64 and Va_arg.

With knowledge of the internal structure of the va_list struct, we can trick the va_arg macro into reading from a va_list that we construct ourselves:

#if (defined( __linux__) && defined(__x86_64__))
// AMD64 byte-aligns elements to 8 bytes
#define VLIST_CHUNK_SIZE 8
#else
#define VLIST_CHUNK_SIZE 4
#define _va_list_ptr _va_list
#endif

typedef struct  {
    va_list _va_list;
#if (defined( __linux__) && defined(__x86_64__))
    void* _va_list_ptr;
#endif
} my_va_list;

void my_va_start(my_va_list* args, void* arg_list)
{
#if (defined(__linux__) && defined(__x86_64__))
    /* va_args will read from the overflow area if the gp_offset
       is greater than or equal to 48 (6 gp registers * 8 bytes/register)
       and the fp_offset is greater than or equal to 304 (gp_offset +
       16 fp registers * 16 bytes/register) */
    args->_va_list[0].gp_offset = 48;
    args->_va_list[0].fp_offset = 304;
    args->_va_list[0].reg_save_area = NULL;
    args->_va_list[0].overflow_arg_area = arg_list;
#endif
    args->_va_list_ptr = arg_list;
}

void my_va_end(my_va_list* args)
{
    free(args->_va_list_ptr);
}

typedef struct {
    ArgFormatType type; // OP defined this enum for format
    union {
        int i;
        // OTHER TYPES HERE
        void* p;
    } data;
} va_data;

Now, we can generate the va_list pointer (which is the same for both 64 bit and 32 bit builds) using something like your process() method or the following:

void* create_arg_pointer(va_data* arguments, unsigned int num_args) {
    int i, arg_list_size = 0;
    void* arg_list = NULL;

    for (i=0; i < num_args; ++i)
    {
        unsigned int native_data_size, padded_size;
        void *native_data, *vdata;

        switch(arguments[i].type)
        {
            case ArgType_int:
                native_data = &(arguments[i].data.i);
                native_data_size = sizeof(arguments[i]->data.i);
                break;
            // OTHER TYPES HERE
            case ArgType_string:
                native_data = &(arguments[i].data.p);
                native_data_size = sizeof(arguments[i]->data.p);
                break;
            default:
                // error handling
                continue;
        }

        // if needed, pad the size we will use for the argument in the va_list
        for (padded_size = native_data_size; 0 != padded_size % VLIST_CHUNK_SIZE; padded_size++);

        // reallocate more memory for the additional argument
        arg_list = (char*)realloc(arg_list, arg_list_size + padded_size);

        // save a pointer to the beginning of the free space for this argument
        vdata = &(((char *)(arg_list))[arg_list_size]);

        // increment the amount of allocated space (to provide the correct offset and size for next time)
        arg_list_size += padded_size;

        // set full padded length to 0 and copy the actual data into the location
        memset(vdata, 0, padded_size);
        memcpy(vdata, native_data, native_data_size);
    }

    return arg_list;
}

And finally, we can use it:

va_data data_args[2];
data_args[0].type = ArgType_int;
data_args[0].data.i = 42;

data_args[1].type = ArgType_string;
data_args[1].data.p = "hello world";

my_va_list args;
my_va_start(&args, create_arg_pointer(data_args, 2));

vprintf("format string %d %s", args._va_list);

my_va_end(&args);

And there you have it. It works mostly the same as the normal va_start and va_end macros, but lets you pass your own dynamically generated, byte-aligned pointer to be used instead of relying on the calling convention to set up your stack frame.